I watched in fascination now as he unlocked two locks with different keys — one attached to his wrist and another from his pocket. A hidden door opened and I was waved through. I expected it to close and lock behind me this time, so it didn’t catch me off guard but still felt creepy. I was now on a landing where I could go left and up, or right and down. I assumed I should go down.
I reached another landing, and yet another door, and yet another shapeshifter. I mentally noted Abbott wasn’t messing around with security.
The shapeshifter fiddled with his phone and then turned it to me, and I saw it was set up for a video call.
“Announce yourself,” he ordered.
Unsure of what to say, I managed to get out, “Ummm, Kirsten, here to see Abbott?”
The door opened and Abbott said, “Thank you, Derrick,” as he took my hand and pulled me into the room.
Abbott and I rounded a corner into a well-decorated, comfortable great room with a fireplace. He turned and put his arms around me, his lips meeting mine for a nice gentle hello kiss, and I was disappointed it wasn’t an I-am-going-to-ravish-you kiss.
When it ended I asked, “You don’t mess around with security, do you? Is there a specific threat right now, or is this just general security?”
“This is as relaxed as we get. We’d have a small army here if there were a specific threat. I’ve blood-bonded some shapeshifters who are our daytime protection, and my vampires provide security at night.”
Common sense told me vampires were vulnerable during the day, so of course they’d have a ton of security, but…
damn
.
He steered me farther into the great room with his hand between my shoulder blades, and it felt more like I was being walked, as opposed to us walking arm in arm. It bothered me, which in itself was troubling because I can get off on being walked on a leash when in a scene.
Of course, we weren’t in a scene.
He guided me to sit beside him on one of the sofas, and asked, “Tell me, my darling, is anything tender from our play last night?”
Okay, the ‘my darling’ wasn’t quite as irritating as it’d been in the past. It still implied an ownership, or could be seen as a statement he possessed me in some way, but he had a little bit of a reason to claim me as his now, didn’t he? He’d given me some powerful orgasms, at any rate, and I’d given myself to him long enough for him to pull them out of me.
“Nope, everything is fine, no aftereffects at all.” Which was true. No busted capillaries from the rope, and even my nipples hadn’t been overly sensitive today. I had no idea how he’d managed it.
“Good, it wasn’t my intention to hurt you too much last night. How do you feel about things, now that you’ve had a chance to think?”
I had to give him total honesty, or at least my idea of total honesty in this moment. Anything less he’d smell as a lie. “I’m not certain it’s a good idea, but if you’re still interested then I’d like to explore it a little and see where it takes us. However, there are a few things I’d like to say out loud so there aren’t any misunderstandings.” I took a breath and plowed ahead. “I’m not going to curtail anything with James, and I’m not agreeing to see you exclusively, just as I don’t expect you to commit to me exclusively. This also means you aren’t to put the word out that I’m off limits.”
He gave me a sarcastic look. “That’s not quite what I expected, but I can live with it. For now.” He seemed to think for a moment, and his acerbic expression changed to curiosity with a hint of concern. “Why don’t you think it’s a good idea?”
“It just seems a bad idea for a human to fall for a vampire. Not because vampires are evil, because I don’t think that’s true. I mean, some are probably evil, just as some humans are evil, but it seems to me that being a vampire doesn’t automatically make you bad.” I was getting away from the point, so I steered back to it. “Mainly, it’s the difference in life spans, and the fact that our schedules don’t really work with each other, what with me having a day job and you being a creature of the night.” I shook my head and rubbed my thumb across the back of his hand. “There are just so many reasons it’s a bad idea. I think one of the biggest stumbling blocks is that you can’t go out in the sun. I get my energy from the sun — put me on a mountaintop on a bright sunny day and I can charge up enough to last for a week. If I’m out in the city at night I’m often drawing on the energy I gained during the day. However, I feel something for you, and I think it would be wrong to run from it, so I won’t. I’m not running towards you, either, but I’m willing to see where things might go.”
He contemplated me a few short seconds, and seemed pleased as he said, “Thank you for your honesty, and for admitting you feel something for me. I’ve felt something for you since I first saw you in the theater as you watched your daughter practice with such love on your face, and it’s only grown as I’ve gotten to know you. So, we will get to know each other as equals, and we will also explore a D/s relationship, correct?”
“As equals? But don’t you believe vampires are superior to humans? Do you really see me as an equal? How can you? You’re so much older, and you have such
perspective
. I can’t imagine that conversations with me can be all that stimulating.”
“But that’s precisely…” He paused and ran his fingers through his hair, just above his ear. “My darling, conversations with you are very stimulating. You have a perspective no one should have after a mere fifteen or so years of adulthood. I suppose you’re right about us not being total equals — I’m faster and stronger and can hear better. However, mentally, I don’t really see myself as superior to you. More learned in some things, certainly, but this doesn’t necessarily make me smarter. I appreciate your unique outlook on life, and the fact I never know what you’ll say next. You’ve made me think about things differently on more than one occasion, and for someone who has lived as long as I, that’s saying something. It’s part of what I like about you.”
While he was talking my cell phone vibrated, but I waited until he finished to pull it from my pocket to see who was calling.
I looked at Abbott as I said, “Hello, Mordecai,” into the phone.
“I just returned to the house and see your car. I have a few things to speak with you about.”
“I’m downstairs with Abbott.” I didn’t know if I could invite him down, so I said, “I can come up and talk.”
“You’ll have more privacy down here,” Abbott said. “I’ll give the okay for them to bring him down.”
Minutes later we were all seated in the great room, and I was once again bowled over by the authority and charisma oozing from Mordecai, not to mention his physical size and the fact he was a fucking
beautiful
man. Not a man, but a hero, something from legend. It felt as if he should have his own theme music following him around, and I could almost hear it when he walked into my presence. Or rather, when he walked so I was in
his
presence. I didn’t say anything, though, and hoped my scent signature didn’t give away the fact I was in awe of him.
Forcing myself to be casual, I sat on the sofa with my shoes off and my legs beside me. Mordecai chose a nearby chair practically facing me, and Abbott sat in another chair off to the side, as if he were an observer and not part of the conversation.
“It took me a decent amount of research and consideration to figure out what you’re doing,” Mordecai told me. “You’re using an old skill, but since you stumbled onto it and have figured it out with no instruction, you’re using it in a different way than I’ve seen it used in the past.”
Something shifted in the room, and I followed it to Abbott. He didn’t look different, but I pulled my brows together and looked at him, trying to figure out what
felt
different.
Abbott noted my expression and looked at Mordecai. “I’ve heard of humans who could form their aura into a sword. I thought it was legend?”
Mordecai shook his head. “Not just a legend, but I haven’t seen it in so long I’d forgotten many of the specifics. I time shifted back to the Library of Alexandria, and was reminded. Even there, it was only brought up as legend, but it was enough to remind me of the facts as I remember them.”
He
time shifted
? Shit. Before I could ask about it, he looked towards me and said, “Once upon a time, special supernaturals trained for years to learn to construct weapons with their aura, but it was almost exclusively a sword, and they not only had to learn to form the sword, but how to wield it and handle it in a fight. However, you’ve stretched the energy out and are using it like a laser, and as a laser it seems to have a lot more flexibility and killing power, as well as a much longer reach. However, with the sword, they used their aura to create it, and then the energy went back into their aura when they finished. They only needed to keep a small amount of extra energy within their aura in order to wield their weapon. With your laser, you’re shooting it away from you, which means you have to store extra energy, and then pull more in as you use it, since humans don’t have the capacity to hold much.” My eyes shot to Abbott for a split second to see his reaction, but the vampire had a good poker face and I saw nothing.
“I’m constructing it from my aura?” I asked Mordecai. “I’ve always considered my aura to be the energy surrounding me, but I guess if we redefine it to the energy inside as well as outside, then yeah, that’s exactly what I’m doing.”
“Yes, it is your aura, your energy, the weapons stem from, which is why you can create heat without it burning you. When you placed your hand on me, the burn actually happened inside of my arm, just below the skin. The surface was red because the burn was under it, but most of the damage happened where you couldn’t see it. When you used your laser the other night, I could see space between your finger and the beginning of the laser. When I focused so I could see your aura, I could see it stemming from your aura instead of your finger. You’re using your finger as a focus — the laser isn’t coming out of your finger.”
“The people in the past who have had this ability, were they human?”
He cut his eyes to Abbott before looking back at me. “No. I’m aware of a few with a small percentage of human blood in them, but they were still mostly supernatural. However, the ones who most successfully used such weapons were not even a tiny bit human.”
Mordecai’s glance at Abbott made me uneasy, as if the vampire would understand something about his statement that I wouldn’t. It was also possible Mordecai wasn’t sure how much to say in front of Abbott, but my understanding was that with me under Abbott’s protection, it would only help to have him know what was going on so he’d best know how to protect me.
“There’s something you aren’t telling me, isn’t there?” I asked Mordecai.
“I’ve never heard of a female having the ability.”
“Abbott,” I said, turning my head to him, “anything you’d like to add to the conversation? What were the men who had this ability?”
“Mordecai is the expert on this, he’s the one to answer your questions.”
I had the feeling Abbott was carefully choosing his words, which annoyed me, and some of my irritation came through in my tone as I said, “But Mordecai is being evasive.”
Mordecai sighed and said, “It’s not so much avoiding your questions as working up to the fact there’s more than one answer. As I said, you’re the first female in both my memory and written legend. It’s a lost art, an old religion, for lack of a better term, and is long lost to history. I don’t know if women couldn’t do it because they weren’t taught, or because they didn’t have the innate ability. From what I remember of the religion, I’d be more inclined to think it’s the latter.”
Mordecai looked at Abbott and back to me. “It wasn’t about race, but about those with the hint of an ability — enough the sect believed the person could be trained. I remember Elves and Berserkers in the sect specifically, as well as a few long lived shapeshifters. I’ve also found a legend saying some of the Fae Royalty could do it, and they didn’t join the sect to learn. There were also gods of old who used such weapons, and it wasn’t always a sword. Once it was a hammer.”
Thoughts swirled through my mind, but I didn’t have time to let them form completely before he kept going. “I have people looking into your family tree to see if we can find an other-than-human race somewhere, but my instincts tell me you’re all human, and your studies and meditation practice have shown you how to do this. To my knowledge, no one has learned to wield such a weapon in several millennia. There are some who still know how to do it, but there have been no individuals added to the very small pool.”
My mind dove back into mythology and I blurted, “A hammer? Thor’s hammer? And that must mean that Surtr’s sword was… You’re telling me I have an ability that....” Oh.
Fuck
. This was too much, and it reminded me of something else. “I’ve used the energy to make
things
before, just not swords or hammers. Once I made it into bowling balls and rolled them into the little squat green things that shoot poison. I never considered making it into something I held onto so I wouldn’t have to keep pulling more energy in.”
“We’ll work on playing with it this evening. Aaron’s men have taught you skills with knives, yes?”
I nodded, and he said, “Then we’ll start out by making it into a knife.”
“I’m really good with a quarterstaff, I can even hold my own with most of the bad-asses Aaron throws at me, if they give me my weapon of choice, which they rarely do anymore.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Aaron would not have taught you skills with a quarterstaff. Who did?”
I couldn’t answer him, as I needed to protect the monks who taught me. I was trying to think of the best way to answer without answering when he asked, “When you learned, what did your teacher call the weapon, it wasn’t called a quarterstaff, was it?”
If I answered his question he’d have an idea of what kind of skills I had, but without knowing who had taught me. That seemed safe enough, but should I answer with an English pronunciation of the word, or should I say it in accurate Mandarin? Saying it accurately felt right, so I did.